Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wreck The Earth

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HOW TO WRECK THE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter from Unless Peace Comes
1968
http://noelozzy.50webs.com/articles/wreck.htm
by Gordon J. F. MacDonald U.S.A.

Professor MacDonald is associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His researches have embraced a remarkable diversity of natural phenomena and his professional interests are further extended by his participation in national science policy-making. He is a member of President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee

Among future means of obtaining national objectives by force, one possibility hinges on man’s ability to control and manipulate the environment of his planet. When achieved, this power over his environment will provide man with a new force capable of doing great and indiscriminate damage. Our present primitive understanding of deliberate environmental change makes it difficult to imagine a world in which geophysical warfare is practised. Such a world might be one in which nuclear weapons were effectively banned and the weapons of mass destruction were those of environmental catastrophe.
Alternatively, I can envisage a world of nuclear stability resulting from parity in such weapons, rendered unstable by the development by one nation of an advanced technology capable of modifying the Earth’s environment. Or geophysical weapons may be part of each nation’s armoury. As I will argue, these weapons are peculiarly suited for covert or secret wars.

Science fiction literature contains many suggestions of how wars would progress if man indeed possessed the ability to change weather, climate, or ocean currents. Many of these fictional suggestions, and other more serious discussions, fail to take into account the limitations of nature. Jules Verne gave a detailed discussion of displacing the Earth’s polar caps, thus making the world’s climatic zones more equitable (Les Voyages Extraordinaires; Sans Dessus Dessous, Metzel, 1889). Verne’s proposal was to eliminate the 23º tilt in the Earth’s axis, putting it at right angles to the Sun-Earth plane. However, as Verne correctly pointed out in a subsequent discussion, the Earth’s equatorial bulge stabilizes our planet and even the launching of a 180,000-ton projectile would produce a displacement of only 1/10 micron. Senator Estes Kefauver, Vice-Presidential candidate in the 1956 American election, rediscovered Verne’s original proposal and was seriously concerned with the tipping of the Earth’s axis. He reported that the Earth’s axis could, as the result of an H-bomb explosion, be displaced by 10º. Either Senator Kefauver or his scientific advisers neglected the stabilizing influence of the Earth’s bulge. The maximum displacement that can be expected from the explosion of a 100-megaton H-weapon is less than one micron, as Walter Munk and I pointed out in our book, Rotation of the Earth (Cambridge, 1960).

Substantial progress within the environmental sciences is slowly overcoming the gap between fact and fiction regarding manipulations of the Earth’s physical environment. As these manipulations become possible, history shows that attempts may be made to use them in support of national ambitions. To consider the consequences of environmental modification in struggles among nations, we need to consider the present state of the subject and how postulated developments in the field could lead, ten to fifty years from now, to weapons systems that would use nature in new and perhaps unexpected ways.

The key to geophysical warfare is the identification of the environmental instabilities to which the addition of a small amount of energy would release vastly greater amounts of energy. Environmental instability is a situation in which nature has stored energy in some part of the Earth or its surroundings far in excess of that which is usual. To trigger this instability, the required energy might be introduced violently by explosions or gently by small bits of material able to induce rapid changes by acting as catalysts or nucleating agents. The mechanism for energy storage might be the accumulation of strain over hundreds of millions of years in the solid Earth, or the super-cooling of water vapour in the atmosphere by updraughts taking place over a few tens of minutes. Effects of releasing this energy could be world-wide, as in the case of altering climate, or regional, as in the case of locally excited earthquakes or enhanced precipitation.

WEATHER MODIFICATION

The Earth’s atmosphere is an envelope of air which rotates, for the most part, at the same speed as the underlying continents and oceans. The relative motion between the atmosphere and the Earth arises from sources and sinks of energy which vary in location and strength but which have, as their ultimate source, the Sun’s radiation. The quantities of energy involved in weather systems exceed by a substantial margin the quantity of energy under man’s direct control.

For instance, the typical amount of energy expended in a single tornado funnel is equivalent to about fifty kilotons of explosives; a single thunderstorm tower exchanges about ten times this much energy during its lifetime; an Atlantic hurricane of moderate size may draw from the sea more than 1,000 megatons of energy. These vast quantities of energy make it unlikely that brute-force techniques will lead to sensible weather modification. Results could be achieved, however, by working on the instabilities in the atmosphere.

We are now beginning to understand several kinds of instabilities in the atmosphere. Supercooled water droplets in cold clouds are unstable, but they remain liquid for substantial periods of time unless supplied with nuclei on which they can freeze. Conversion of water droplets to ice through the introduction of artificial nuclei can provide a local source of energy. This released heat can cause rising air currents which in turn lead to further formation of supercooled water. This process may lead to rainfall at the ground greater than that which would have been produced without the artificial nucleation. A second instability may arise, in which water vapour condenses into water, again affecting the distribution of sensible energy. On a larger scale, there is the so-called baroclinic instability of atmospheric waves that girdle the planet. Through the imbalance of heat between equator and pole, energy in this instability is stored, to be released in the creation of large cyclonic storms in the temperate zones. There are other, less well understood instabilities capable of affecting climate; I shall return to them later.

What is the present situation with respect to weather modification and what might be reasonably expected in the future? Experiments over the past eighteen years have demonstrated unequivocally that clouds composed of supercooled water droplets can be transformed into ice-crystal clouds by seeding them with silver iodide, ‘dry ice’ (frozen carbon dioxide) and other suitable chemical agents. This discovery has been applied operationally in the clearance of airports covered by supercooled ground fog. No analogous technique has yet evolved for clearing warm fog, although several promising leads are now being investigated. In the case of warm fog, the atmospheric instability is that water vapour distributed in small drops contains more surface energy than the same water distributed in large drops. The trick for clearance of this warm fog will be to discover some way of getting the small drops to organize themselves into larger ones and then fall to the ground.

There is increasing, though inconclusive, evidence that rainfall from some types of clouds and storm systems in temperate regions can be increased by ten to fifteen per cent by seeding. Somewhat more controversial evidence indicates that precipitation can be increased from tropical cumulus by techniques similar to those employed in temperate regions. Preliminary experiments on hurricanes have the aim of dissipating the clouds surrounding the eye of the storm in order to spread the energy of the hurricane and reduce its force. The results are controversial but indicate that seeding can, in certain circumstaaces, lead to a marked growth in the seeded cloud. This possibility may have merit in hurricane modification, but experimentation has not yet resulted in a definitive statement.

Regarding the suppression of lightning, there is mixed but largely promising evidence that the frequency of cloud-to-ground strokes can be reduced by the introduction of ‘chaff’, strips of metallic foil of the kind used for creating spurious echoes in enemy radars.

In looking to the future, it is quite clear that substantial advances will be made in all of these areas of weather modification. Today, both military and civilian air transport benefit from progress in the clearance of ground fog. Further progress in the technology of introducing the seeding agent into the fog makes it likely that this type of fog dispersal will become routine. In a sense, fog clearing is the first military application of deliberate manipulation of weather, but it is, of course, very limited.

Large field programmes are being undertaken in the United States to explore further the possibility of enhancing precipitation, particularly in the western and north-eastern states. On the high ground of the western states, snow from winter storms provides much of the country’s moisture. Investigations are under way to see if seeding can lead to an increased snowpack and thus enhance the water resources. Intense interest in this form of weather modification, coupled with an increased investigation of the physics of clouds, is likely to lead to effective cloud modification within the next five to fifteen years. At present, the effects are measured only statistically and too little has been done in cloud observation before and after seeding in the way of precisely pinpointing which clouds are most likely to be affected.

As far as military applications are concerned, I conjecture that precipitation enhancement would have a limited value in classical tactical situations, and then only in the future when controls are more thoroughly understood. One could, for example, imagine field commanders calling for local enhancement of precipitation to cover or impede various ground operations. An alternative use of cloud seeding might be applied strategically. We are presently uncertain about the effect of seeding on precipitation down wind from the seeded clouds. Preliminary analysis suggests that there is no effect 200-300 miles down wind, but that continued seeding over a long stretch of dry land clearly could remove sufficient moisture to prevent rain 1,000 miles down wind. This extended effect leads to the possibility of covertly removing moisture from the atmosphere so that a nation dependent on water vapour crossing a competitor country could be subjected to years of drought. The operation could be concealed by the statistical irregularity of the atmosphere. A nation possessing superior technology in environmental manipulation could damage an adversary without revealing its intent.

Modification of storms, too, could have major strategic implications. As I have mentioned, preliminary experiments have been carried out on the seeding of hurricanes. The dynamics of hurricanes and the mechanism by which energy is transferred from the ocean into the atmosphere supporting the hurricane are poorly understood. Yet various schemes for both dissipation and steering can be imagined. Although hurricanes originate in tropical regions, they can travel into temperate latitudes, as the residents of New England know only too well. A controlled hurricane could be used as a weapon to terrorize opponents over substantial parts of the populated world.

It is generally supposed that a hurricane draws most of its energy from the sea over which it passes. The necessary process of heat transfer depends on wave action which permits the air to come in contact with a volume of water. This interaction between the air and water also stirs the upper layers of the atmosphere and permits the hurricane to draw on a substantially larger reservoir of heat than just the warm surface water. There may be ways, using monomolecular films of materials like those developed for covering reservoirs to reduce evaporation, for decreasing the local interaction between sea and air and thus preventing the ocean from providing energy to the hurricane in an accelerated fashion. Such a procedure, coupled with selective seeding, might provide hurricane guidance mechanisms. At present we are a long way from having the basic data and understanding necessary to carry out such experiments; nevertheless, the long-term possibility of developing and applying such techniques under the cover of nature’s irregularities presents a disquieting prospect.

CLIMATE MODIFICATION

In considering whether or not climate modification is possible, it is useful to examine climate variations under natural conditions. Firm geological evidence exists of a long sequence of Ice Ages, in the relatively recent past, which shows that the world’s climate has been in a state of slow evolution. There is also good geological, archaeological and historical evidence for a pattern of smaller, more rapid fluctuations superimposed on the slow evolutionary change. For example, in Europe the climate of the early period following the last Ice Age was continental, with hot summers and cold winters. In the sixth millennium B.C., there was a change to a warm humid climate with a mean temperature of 5ºF higher than at present and a heavy rainfall that caused considerable growth of peat. This period, known as a climatic optimum, was accentuated in Scandinavia by a land subsidence which permitted a greater influx of warm Atlantic water into the large Baltic Sea.

The climatic optimum was peculiar. While on the whole there was a very gradual decrease of rainfall, the decrease was interrupted by long droughts during which the surface peat dried. This fluctuation occurred several times, the main dry periods being from 2000 to 1900, 1200 to 1000 and 700 to 500 B.C. The last, a dry heat wave lasting approximately 200 years, was the best developed. The drought, though not sufficiently intense to interrupt the steady development of forests, did cause extensive migrations of peoples from drier to wetter regions.

A change to colder and wetter conditions occurred in Europe about 500 B.C. and was by far the greatest and most abrupt alteration in climate since the end of the last Ice Age. It had a catastrophic effect on the early civilization of Europe: large areas of forest were killed by the rapid growth of peat and the levels of the Alpine lakes rose suddenly, flooding many of the lake settlements. This climatic change did not last long; by the beginning of the Christian era, conditions did not differ greatly from current ones. Since then climatic variations have continued to occur and although none has been as dramatic as that of 500 B.C. a perturbation known as the little ice age of the seventeenth century is a recent noteworthy example. The cause of these historical changes in climate remains shrouded in mystery, The rapid changes of climate in the past suggest to many that there exist instabilities affecting the balance of solar radiation.

Indeed, climate is primarily determined by the balance between the incoming short-wave from the Sun (principally light) and the loss of outgoing long-wave radiation (principally heat).

Three factors dominate the balance: the energy of the Sun, the surface character of terrestrial regions (water, ice, vegetation, desert, etc.), and the transparency of the Earth’s atmosphere to different forms of radiated energy. In the last connection, the effect of clouds in making cool days and relatively warm nights is a matter of familiar experience. But clouds are a manifestation rather than an original determinant of weather and climate; of more fundamental significance is the effect of gases in the atmosphere, which absorb much of the radiation in transit from the Sun to the Earth or from the Earth into space. Intense X-rays and ultra-violet from the Sun, together with high-energy atomic particles, are arrested in the upper atmosphere. Only the narrow band of visible light and some short radio waves traverse the atmosphere without serious interruption.

There has been much controversy in recent years about conjectured overall effects on the world’s climate of emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from furnaces and engines burning fossil fuels, and some about possible influences of the exhaust from large rockets on the transparency of the upper atmosphere. Carbon dioxide placed in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution has produced an increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere of a few tenths of a degree Fahrenheit. The water vapour that may be introduced into the stratosphere by the supersonic transport may also result in a similar temperature rise. In principle it would be feasible to introduce material into the upper atmosphere that would absorb either incoming light (thereby cooling the surface) or outgoing heat (thereby warming the surface). In practice, in the rarefied and windswept upper atmosphere, the material would disperse rather quickly, so that military use of such a technique would probably rely upon global rather than local effects. Moreover, molecular material will tend to decompose, and even elemental materials will eventually be lost by diffusion into space or precipitation to the surface. At intermediate levels, in the stratosphere, materials may tend to accumulate though the mixing time for this part of the atmosphere is certainly less than ten years and may be a few months. If a nation’s meteorologists calculated that a general warming or cooling of the Earth was in their national interest, improving their climate while worsening others, the temptation to release materials from high-altitude rockets might exist. At present we know too little about the paradoxical effects of warming and cooling, however, to tell what the outcome might be.

More sudden, perhaps much briefer but nevertheless disastrous effects, are predictable if chemical or physical means were developed for attacking one of the natural constituents of the atmosphere ozone. A low concentration of ozone (03, a rare molecular form of oxygen) in a layer between fifteen and fifty kilometres altitude has the utmost significance for life on land. It is responsible for absorbing the greater part of the ultra-violet from the Sun. In mild doses, this radiation causes sunburn; if the full force of it were experienced at the surface, it would be fatal to all life – including farm crops and herds – that could not take shelter. The ozone is replenished daily, but a temporary ‘hole’ in the ozone layer over a target area might be created by physical or chemical action. For example, ultra-violet at 250 millimicrons wavelength decomposes ozone molecules, and ozone reacts readily with a wide range of materials.

At present, we can only tentatively speculate about modifying the short-wave radiation at its source, the Sun. We have discovered major instabilities on the Sun’s surface which might be manipulated many years hence. In a solar flare, for example, 1010 megatons of energy are stored in distorted magnetic fields. With advanced techniques of launching rockets and setting off large explosions, we may sometime in the future learn to trigger these instabilities. For the near future, however, modification will not be in the short-wave in- coming radiation but in the long-wave outgoing radiation.

The usual schemes for modifying climate involve the manipulation of large ice fields. The persistence of these large ice fields is due to the cooling effects of the ice itself, both in reflecting (rather than absorbing) incoming short-wave radiation and in radiating heat at a higher rate than the usual ground cover. A commonly suggested means of climate modification involves thin layers of coloured material spread on an icy surface, thus inhibiting both the reaction and radiation processes, melting the ice, and thereby altering the climate. Such a procedure presents obvious technical and logistic difficulties. For example, if one wished to create a surface coating of as little as one micron thickness to cover a square 1,000 kilometres in size, the total material for this extremely thin coating would weigh a million tons or more, depending upon its density. So the proposals to dust from the air some of the globe’s extended ice sheets, are unrealistic and reflect a brute-force technique, taking no advantage of instabilities within the environment.

While it may be technologically difficult to change an ice cap’s surface character, and thus its thermal properties, it may be possible to move the ice, taking into account the gravitational instability of ice caps. The gravitational potential energy of water as a thick, high ice cap is much greater than it would be at sea level. This fact makes it possible, at least in principle, to devise schemes for bringing about a redistribution in the ice. Indeed, A. T. Wilson has proposed a cyclical theory for the Ice Ages based on this instability.

The main points of Wilson’s theory are as follows:

-Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet several kilometres thick. Pressure at the bottom of the ice is great enough to keep the ice at or near its melting point; water is an unusual material in that a pressure increase lowers rather than raises its melting point. An increase in thickness of the ice sheet could result in melting at the bottom. The resulting ice-water mixture along the sole of the glacier would permit flow by a process of freezing and melting – a flow process much more effective than ordinary plastic fiow.

-If such an instability occurs, the ice sheet will flow out on to the surrounding sea and a large ice shelf will be formed between Antarctica and the ocean around it. As a consequence, short-wave solar radiation will be reflected and there will be enhanced loss of heat by radiation at the long wave-lengths, causing cooling and the inducement of world-wide glaciation.

-Once the ice shelf is in the ocean, it will begin to melt and eventually will be removed. The ice remaining on land will be much thinner than before. As the reflectivity of the southern hemisphere decreases with the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, the global climate will grow warmer again, corresponding to the start of an interglacial period. The ice cap will slowly form again.


Commenting on Wilson’s theory, J. T. Hollin has noted the possibility of a catastrophic surge or advance of the ice sheet, such as has been recorded from small glaciers on numerous occasions. The largest surge yet reported is probably that of the ice cap in Spitsbergen which advanced up to twenty-one kilometres on a front of thirty kilometres sometime between 1935 and 1938. There are also reports of glacial advances at speeds up to 100 metres per day. Hollin speculates that, once the bottom-melting phase of a gravitationally unstable ice cap is reached, it will move quickly. In addition to trapped geothermal heat melting the ice at the bottom, there are additional contributions from frictional heat generated as the glacier scrapes along the solid ground.

If the speculative theory of Wilson is correct (and there are many attractive features to it) then a mechanism does exist for catastrophically altering the Earth’s climate. The release of thermal energy, perhaps through nuclear explosions along the base of an ice sheet, could initiate outward sliding of the ice sheet which would then be sustained by gravitational energy. One megaton of energy is sufficient to melt about 100 million tons of ice. One hundred megatons of energy would convert 0.1 cm of ice into a thin layer of water covering the entire Antarctic ice cap. Lesser amounts of energy suitably placed could undoubtedly initiate the outward flow of the ice.

What would be the consequences of such an operation? The immediate effect of this vast quantity of ice surging into the water, if velocities of 100 metres per day are appropriate, would be to create massive tsunamis (tidal waves) which would completely wreck coastal regions even in the northern hemisphere. There would then follow marked changes in climate brought about by the suddenly changed reflectivity of the Earth. At a rate of 100 metres per day, the centre of the ice sheet would reach the land’s edge in forty years.

Who would stand to benefit from such application? The logical candidate, would be a landlocked equatorial country. An extended glacial period would ensure near-Arctic conditions over much of the temperate zone, but temperate climate with abundant rainfall would be the rule in the present tropical regions.

[THEY HAVE BEEN PLANNING THIS SHIT FOR DECADES!]

FUTURE OF WEATHER AND CLIMATE MODIFICATION

The foregoing perhaps represents a more positive view of weather and climate modification than that held by many Earth scientists. I believe this view is justified as it is based on three scientific and technological advances. First, understanding of basic meteorology has advanced to such an extent that mathematical models of the atmosphere here have been developed incorporating the most important elements. Physical processes in clouds, in turbulent exchanges at the surface, and in transmission of radiation through the atmosphere are no longer as mysterious as they once were. The volumes simulated by the models range from the size of a single cloud to the entire atmosphere; these models are no longer primitive representations.

Secondly, the advent of high-speed computers enables atmospheric models to be studied in greater detail. These computers have a peculiar importance to weather modification, since they will enable scientists to carry out extended experiments to test whether or not various schemes for manipulating the atmosphere are indeed possible and what the outcome should be.

The third advance lending support to expectations for weather and climate modification is the new array of instruments developed to observe and detect changes in the atmosphere. The most dramatic and perhaps the most powerful is the meteorological satellite which provides a platform whence the atmosphere can be observed, not only in geographically inaccessible regions, but also with entirely new physical measurements. For example, meteorological satellites of the future will permit the determination of humidity, temperature and pressure as averaged over substantial volumes of the atmosphere, providing quantities which are needed to develop the mathematical models. Sophisticated surface instrumentation, for observing detailed processes within smaller parts of the atmosphere, provides us with far more powerful tools with which to look at clouds and at the interaction of the atmosphere with its boundaries than those which were available ten or twenty years ago.

EARTHQUAKE MODIFICATION

What causes earthquakes? Over geological time, the irregular distribution of heat-producing radioactive elements in the rock layers gives rise to sub-surface temperature differences between various parts of the Earth. In the continents, granites and similar rocks have concentrated radioactive elements near the surface; no similar concentration has taken place in the sub-oceanic regions, which may as a result be more than 100ºC cooler than the corresponding sub-continental regions. Such variations in temperature along a horizontal line, due to the ddferences in the vertical distribution of heat-producing elements, give rise to large thermal stresses, causing strain analogous to that which cracks a glass tumbler filled with hot water. The strain tends to be greatest in regions of abrupt temperature change along a horizontal line through the Earth’s crust. The strain may be partially relieved by the slow convective flow of material in the deep Earth which is thought by some geophysicists to push continents about. But the strain can also be relieved by sharp fractures or by movements along previous faults in rocks near the surface. Movement along a fault radiates energy outward, which results in an earthquake. Each year approximately 200 megatons of strain energy is released in this fashion, the largest earthquakes corresponding to energy of the order of 100 megatons. The energy released depends on the volume of material affected. The largest earthquakes take place along faults having a linear dimension of 1,000 kilometres, whereas smaller ones take place along faults of one kilometre or less.

Major earthquakes tend to be located along two main belts. One belt, along which about eighty-five per cent of the total energy is released, passes around the Pacific and affects countries whose coastlines border this ocean, for example Japan and the west coast of North America. The second belt passes through the Mediterranean regions eastwards through Asia and joins the first belt in Indonesia. Along these two belts, large earthquakes occur with varying frequencies.

In California, a large earthquake might be expected once every 50 to 100 years, while Chile might expect such a disturbance once every ten to twenty years. Sometimes major earthquakes have occurred in regions ordinarily thought of as being free from risk. For example, the New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12 devastated a large area of central North America but had only slight cultural effects because of the area’s sparse population.

Today, our detailed understanding of the mechanism that causes an earthquake and of how the related instabilities can be triggered is limited. Only within the last few years have serious discussions of earthquake prediction begun, whereas moderately reliable weather forecasts have been available for about the last thirty to fifty years.

Currently, substantial effort is being made, primarily by Japan and the United States, to develop techniques for forecasting earthquakes. These techniques are based to a large extent on the determination of changing strain conditions of materials in the rocks surrounding recognized fault zones. Of possible value is the observation that, before an earthquake, the accumulating strain accelerates.

Control of earthquakes is a prospect even more distant than that of forecasting although two techniques have been suggested through recent experience.

In the course of the underground testing of nuclear weapons at the Nevada test site, it was observed that an explosion apparently released local strain in the Earth. The hypothesis is that the swift build-up of strain due to the sudden release of energy in an explosion discharges strain energy over a large volume of material.

Another method of releasing strain energy has appeared from pumping of underground water in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, which has led to a series of small earthquakes. The hypothesis here is that underground water has provided local lubrication permitting adjacent blocks to slip by one another.

The use as a weapon system of the strain energy instability within the solid Earth requires an effective triggering mechanism. A scheme for pumping water seems clumsy and easily detectable. On the other hand, if the strain pattern in the crust can be accurately determined, the phased or timed release of energy from smaller faults, designed to trigger a large fault at some distance, could be contemplated. This timed release could be activated through small explosions and thus it might be possible to use this release of energy stored in small faults at some distance from a major fault to trigger that major fault. For example, the San Andreas fault zone, passing near Los Angeles and San Francisco, is part of the great earthquake belt surrounding the Pacific. Good knowledge of the strain within this belt might permit the setting off of the San Andreas zone by timed explosions in the China Sea and Philippine Sea. In contrast with certain meteorological operations, it would seem rather unlikely that such an attack could be carried out covertly under the guise of natural earthquakes.

MODIFICATION OF OCEANS

We are still in the very early stages of developing the theory and techniques for predicting the state of the oceans. In the past two decades, methods have been devised for the prediction of surface waves and surface wind distribution. A warning system for the tsunamis (tidal waves) produced by earthquakes has also been developed.

Certain currents within the oceans have been identified, but we do not yet know what the variable components are; that is, what the weather within the ocean is. Thus we have not been able to identify any instabilities within the oceanic circulation that might be easily manipulated. As in the case of the solid Earth, we can only speculate tentatively about how oceanic processes might be controlled.

One instability offering potential as a future weapon system is that associated with tsunamis. These frequently originate from the slumping into the deep ocean of loosely consolidated sediments and rocks perched on the continental shelf. Movement of these sediments can trigger the release of vast quantities of gravitational energy, part of which is converted in the motion of the tsunami. For example if, along a 1,000-kilometre edge of a continental shelf, a block 100 metres deep and 10 kilometres wide were dropped a distance of 100 metres, about 100 megatons of energy would be released. This release would be catastrophic to any coastal nation. How could it be achieved? A series of phased explosions, perhaps setting off natural earthquakes, would be a most effective way. I could even speculate on planning a guided tidal wave, where guidance is achieved by correctly shaping the source which releases energy.

BRAIN WAVES ROUND THE WORLD?

At heights of forty to fifty kilometres above the Earth’s surface, substantial numbers of charged particles are found which make this part of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, a good conductor of electricity. The rocks and oceans are also more conducting than the lower atmosphere. Thus, we live in an insulating atmosphere between two spherical conducting shells or, as the radio engineer would put it, in an Earth-ionosphere cavity, or waveguide. Radio waves striking either conducting shell tend to be reflected back into the cavity, and this phenomenon is what makes conventional long-distance radio communication possible. Only recently, however, has there been any interest in natural electrical resonances within the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. Like any such cavity, the Earth-ionosphere waveguide will tend to sustain radio oscillation at certain frequencies in preference to others. These resonant frequencies are primarily determined by the size of the Earth and the speed of light, but the properties of the ionosphere modify them to a certain extent. The lowest resonances begin at about eight cycles per second, far below the frequencies ordinarily used for radio communication. Because of their long wavelength and small field strength, they are difficult to detect. Moreover, they die down quickly, within 1/16 second or so; in engineering terms, the cavity has a short time constant.

The natural resonant oscillations are excited by lightning strokes, cloud-to-ground strokes being a much more efficient source than horizontal cloud-to-cloud discharges. On the average, about 100 lightning strokes occur each second (primarily concentrated in the equatorial regions) so that normally about six lightning flashes are available to introduce energy before a particular oscillation dies down. A typical oscillation’s field strength is of the order of 0.3 millivolts per metre.

The power of the oscillations varies geographically. For example, for a source located on the equator in Brazil the maximum intensity of the oscillation is near the source and at the opposite side of the Earth (around Indonesia). The intensity is lower in intermediate regions and towards the poles.

One can imagine several ways in which to increase the intensity of such electrical oscillations. The number of lightning strokes per second could be enhanced by artificially increasing their original number. Substantial progress has been made in the understanding of the physics of lightning and of how it might be controlled. The natural oscillations are excited by randomly occurring strokes. The excitation of timed strokes would enhance the efficiency with which energy is injected into an oscillation. Furthermore, the time constant of the oscillation would be doubled by a four-fold increase in the electrical conductivity of the ionosphere, so that any scheme for enhancing that conductivity (for example, by injecting readily ionized vapour) lowers the energy losses and lengthens the time constant, which would permit a greater number of phased lightaing strokes before the decay of an oscillation.

The enhanced low-frequency electrical oscillations in the Earth-ionosphere cavity relate to possible weapons systems through a little understood aspect of brain physiology. Electrical activity in the brain is concentrated at certain frequencies, some of it extremely slow, a little around five cycles per second, and very conspicuous activity (the so-called alpha rhythm) around ten cycles per second.

Some experiments have been done in the use of a flickering light to pull the brain’s alpha rhythm into unnatural synchrony with it; the visual stimulation leads to electrical stimulation. There has also been work on direct electrical driving of the brain. In experiments discussed by Norbert Wiener, a sheet of tin is suspended from the ceiling and connected to a generator working at ten cycles per second. With large field strengths of one or two volts per centimetre oscillating at the alpha-rhythm frequency, decidedly unpleasant sensations are noted by human subjects.

The Brain Research Institute of the University of California is investigating the effect of weak oscillating fields on human behaviour. The field strengths in these experiments are of the order of a few hundredths of a volt per centimetre. Subjects show small but measurable degradation in performance when exposed to oscillating fields for periods of up to fifteen minutes.

The field strengths in these experiments are still much stronger, by a factor of about 1,000, than the observed natural oscillations in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. However, as previously noted, the intensity of the natural fluctuations could bc increased substantially and in principle could be maintained for a long time, as tropical thunder storms are always available for manipulation. The proper geographical location of the source of lightning, coupled with accurately-timed, artificially-excited strokes, could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produced relatively high power levels over certain regions of the Earth and substantially lower levels over other regions. In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair brain performance in very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.


The scheme I have suggested is admittedly far-fetched, but I have used it to indicate the rather subtle connections between variations in man’s environmental conditions and his behaviour. Perturbation of the environment can produce changes in behaviour patterns. Since our understanding of both behavioural and environmental manipulation is rudimentary, schemes of behavioural alteration on the surface seem unrealistic. No matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behaviour for national advantage is to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades.

SECRET WAR AND CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS

Deficiencies both in the basic understanding of the physical processes in the environment and in the technology of environmental change make it highly unlikely that environmental modification will be an attractive weapon system in any direct military confrontation in the near future. Man already possesses highly effective tools for destruction. Eventually, however, means other than open warfare may be used to secure national advantage. As economic competition among many advanced nations heightens, it may be to a country’s advantage to ensure a peaceful natural environment for itself and a disturbed environment for its competitors. Operations producing such conditions might be carried out covertly, since nature’s great irregularity permits storms, floods, droughts, earthquakes and tidal waves to be viewed as unusual but not unexpected. Such a ‘secret war’ need never be declared or even known by the affected populations. It could go on for years with only the security forces involved being aware of it. The years of drought and storm would be attributed to unkindly nature and only after a nation were thoroughly drained would an armed take-over be attempted.

In addition to their covert nature, a feature common to several modification schemes is their ability to affect the Earth as a whole. The environment knows no political boundaries; it is independent of the institutions based on geography and the effects of modification can be projected from any one point to any other on the Earth.

Because environmental modification may be a dominant feature of future world decades, there is concern that this incipient technology is in total conflict with many of the traditional geographical and political units and concepts.

Political, legal, economic and sociological consequences of deliberate environmental modification, even for peaceful purposes, will be of such complexity that perhaps all our present involvements in nuclear affairs will seem simple. Our understanding of basic environmental science and technology is primitive, but still more primitive are our notions of the proper political forms and procedures to deal with the consequences of modification. All experience shows that less significant technological changes than environmental control finally transform political and social relationships. Experience also shows that these transformations are not necessarily predictable, and that guesses we might make now, based on precedent, are likely to be quite wrong. It would seem, however, that these non-scientific, non-technological problems are of such magnitude that they deserve consideration by serious students throughout the world if society is to live comfortably in a controlled environment.



Author’s note: In the section on weather modification I have drawn heavily on Weather and Climate Modification (National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington, zg66). A. T. Wilson’s paper on ‘Origin of Ice Ages’ appeared in Nature, vol. aox, pp. z4y-g (xg64), and J. T. Hollin’s comments in vol. ao8, pp. ra-16 (r 965). Release of tectonic strain by underground nuclear explosion was reported by F. Press and C. Archambeau in Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 67, pp. 337-43 (1962), and man-made earthquakes in Denver by D. Evans in Geotimes, vol. to, pp. rr-rp. I am grateful to J. Homer and W. Ross Adey of the Brain Research Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, for information on the experimental investigation of the infiuence of magnetic fields on human behaviour.

HAARP, Haiti, Brzezinski and the NWO
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_5495.shtml
By Jerry Mazza Online Journal Associate Editor

Excerpt...

Yet a 1990 government document claims that the radio frequency (RF) power bolt can drive the ionosphere to “unnatural” activities. Quoting the authors . . .”at the highest HF powers available in the West, the instabilities commonly studied are approaching their maximum RF energy dissipative capability, beyond which the plasma process will ‘runaway’ until the next limiting factor is reached.” The program operates out the University of Alaska Fairbanks (in Sarah Palin-land), providing a ground-based “Star Wars” technology, offering a relatively inexpensive defense shield.

But the University also boasts about the most mind-boggling geophysical manipulations since nuclear bombs of which HAARP is capable. It’s based on the work of electrical genius Nicholas Tesla and the work and patents of Texas’ physicist Bernard Eastlund. The military has deliberately underestimated the deadly possibilities of this uber technology, most pointedly in this case to create earthquakes with the generation of bolts of electrical power aimed at specific targets.

In fact, HAARP’s potential for havoc drew the attention of none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski, former NSA adviser to Jimmy Carter, science advisor to President Johnson, and political advisor to President Obama.

More than 25 years ago, when Brzezinski was a professor at Columbia University, he wrote, “Political strategists are tempted to exploit research on the brain and human behavior [another strange purpose HAARP can be put to]. Geophysicist Gordon J.F. MacDonald, a specialist in problems of warfare, says accurately-timed, artificially-excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain legions of the earth . . . in this way one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.”

He capped this statement with “no matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages, to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades.” Let me tell you, dear readers, it’s here.

As of 1970, Brzezinski predicted HAARP could be used for “a more controlled and directed society” linked to technology. This society would be dominated by an elite group which impresses voters by allegedly superior scientific know-how.” Furthermore, Dr. Strangelove states, “Unhindered by the restrains of traditional liberal values, this elite [the New World Order of today] would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits.”

And thus spake Brzezinski, who also predicted that it would take an inciting incident like Pearl Harbor (i.e., 9/11) to engage the normally peaceful American population to go to war on a march for world hegemony (i.e., The War on Terror). And he was spot on.

Zbig is not afraid, in fact, is lauded for thinking down avenues that would make most of us shiver with disgust. Regrettably, his forecasts tend to prove accurate, because they inspire the worst people to do the worst things. And so, these “tools for the elite” and their temptation to use them increases incredibly. The policies to use them are in place. As to the “stepping stones” that could be used to reach this highly controlled techno-society, Brezinski expected them to be “persisting social crisis” and the use of mass media to gain the public’s confidence. Again, he’s spot on.

Way back in 1966, Professor Gordon J.F. MacDonald, then associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UC, Los Angeles, was a member of President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee and later a member of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. He actually wrote a chapter called “How to Wreck the Environment” in his book, Unless Peace Comes. Of course, this came at the height of the Vietnam brutality. Given the aura of violence similar to today’s, Gordon described in his chapter, among other things, “polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques, earthquake engineering, ocean wave control and brain wave manipulation using the planet’s energy fields.”
AJ's show yesterday with Dr. Baylock was right on the money:

Today Alex welcomes back Dr. Russell Blaylock, board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer, to discuss lithium and fluoride being added to local water supplies.



What is important to note is Jerry Mazza's evaluation and comparison of the two moments in historical context:

He actually wrote a chapter called “How to Wreck the Environment” in his book, Unless Peace Comes. Of course, this came at the height of the Vietnam brutality. Given the aura of violence similar to today’s, Gordon described in his chapter, among other things, “polar ice cap melting or destabilization, ozone depletion techniques, earthquake engineering, ocean wave control and brain wave manipulation using the planet’s energy fields.”



Also important to note is Brzezinski's invisible hand in all of these narratives pervasive among the elite controllers of society:

As of 1970, Brzezinski predicted HAARP could be used for “a more controlled and directed society” linked to technology. This society would be dominated by an elite group which impresses voters by allegedly superior scientific know-how.” Furthermore, Dr. Strangelove states, “Unhindered by the restrains of traditional liberal values, this elite [the New World Order of today] would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits.”

And thus spake Brzezinski, who also predicted that it would take an inciting incident like Pearl Harbor (i.e., 9/11) to engage the normally peaceful American population to go to war on a march for world hegemony (i.e., The War on Terror). And he was spot on.

Zbig is not afraid, in fact, is lauded for thinking down avenues that would make most of us shiver with disgust. Regrettably, his forecasts tend to prove accurate, because they inspire the worst people to do the worst things. And so, these “tools for the elite” and their temptation to use them increases incredibly. The policies to use them are in place. As to the “stepping stones” that could be used to reach this highly controlled techno-society, Brezinski expected them to be “persisting social crisis” and the use of mass media to gain the public’s confidence. Again, he’s spot on.
RockefellerFoundation predicts for 2012

PERSISTING SOCIAL CRISIS

caused by pandemic, economic collapse, marauding gangs

So, I was reading this article (I think it has already been linked to by other people on here - since Alan Watt linked to it a couple of days ago - but as far as I know, this is the original article and contains some more stuff that the link Alan Watt put up did not have ) - and it made mention of this consortium called Global Business Network.


The English Ideology and WIRED Magazine

Part Three Of Three

Techno-Utopianism: The Final Imperial Solution
by Mark Stahlman November 22nd, 1996

http://web.archive.org/web/20011226171744/www.rewired.com/96/Fall/1122.html


This snippet in particular piqued my curiosity
Quote
No less chilling is the scenarios planning exercise that WIRED's wizards-behind-the-curtain perform on their multi-national clients. From General Motors to AT&T, the Global Business Network (GBN) charges hefty sums to show the yellow-brick-road towards "ByteCity" to strategic planners and top corporate brass. In one recent and rare public discussion of the results, GM's top planning team defined the three "alternative futures" which emerged after years of GBN counseling. The first is just like our world and, so by definition, is not very interesting. The second is an eco-fascist regime in which car designs are completely "Green" and the companies can only follow orders. The third is the fun one, however. This is the world in which armed gangs roam the streets and surface travel is a series of car chases. This scenario has already been anticipated with a Cadillac that includes armored protection and a "panic" button installed in the middle of the dashboard. The car has a satellite tracking system built in and it can call the local authorities (presumably your multi-national's private swat-team) and get help when you get trapped by the natives.


So naturally, I looked into Global Business Network. This consortium is kind of like Wells 'The Samurai' corporate overlord board - every bigwig company you can imagine that is into some type of big industry is among its members.

Global Business Network

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Business_Network

Funding / Members - Corporations

I don't have time to list all of the companies, so let's just list for the sake of interest some of the key companies that consider themselves to be members - these companies also provide for the organization's funding:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Business_Network#Funding

  • AT&T
  • Bechtel
  • Booz Allen & Hamilton
  • Coca-Cola Company
  • Dow Chemical
  • DuPont
  • EDS (Electronic Data Systems)
  • Fannie Mae
  • Freddie Mac
  • ExxonMobil
  • General Electric
  • Heineken (My note: The Dutch beer-brewer)
  • Hewlett Packard/HP
  • IBM (My note: Big surprise, huh?)
  • Intel
  • L'Oreal
  • Lucent Corporation
  • Microsoft
  • Monsanto
  • Procter & Gamble
  • Reuters
  • Sandia National Laboratories
  • Shell Oil/Dutch Royal Shell
  • Toyota
  • Sun Microsystems (My note: See, I don't want to hear anymore crap from some techies that Sun Microsystems was 'once' good prior to being taken over by the evil 'Oracle' - to hell with that - they were ALWAYS part of the hive mind - stop sucking up to controlled opposition is my message to these people - forget about the SPARC processors and all that shit and realize these guys didn't give a rip about you, the individual, or any semblance of human dignity - same as all the other corporate technocrats)
  • Xerox

The list is far longer than this, but you get the drill - any corporation worth its salt is a member and/or provides funding for it.

Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog, Wired Magazine, Global Business Network

This ties back into Stewart Brand - the guy behind the Whole Earth Catalog, the founding of Wired Magazine, and the main progenitor of this entire techno-utopia 'scientific dictatorship' that the Unabomber railed against. Coincidentally, he was also a co-founder of Global Business Network.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Stewart_Brand

Quote
Brand is a co-founder of the Global Business Network (GBN) (1988) [4]; the The Long Now Foundation (1995) [5], "whose core project is the construction of a 10,000 year clock called The Clock of the Long Now"; the ALL Species Foundation (2001) [6], "to find and document every life form on Earth" [7]; and the Long Bets Foundation (2001), "an arena for competitive, accountable predictions" and "to foster better long-term thinking." [8][9]



Anyway, here comes the big one - this is a report produced by the Rockefeller Foundation in cooperation with Global Business Network in May 2010 - and it shows four possible future scenarios that the world might be headed into. Let's discuss this, shall we.

http://www.gbn.com/consulting/article_details.php?id=101&breadcrumb=consulting

http://www.gbn.com/articles/pdfs/GBN&Rockefeller%20scenarios.technology&development.pdf

Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development
This report was produced by

The Rockefeller Foundation
and Global Business Network.
May 2010




Let's see what Peter Schwartz, President of Global Business Network, has to say about these 'scenarios' firsthand:

Quote

Scenario planning is a powerful tool precisely because the future is unpredictable and shaped by many interacting variables. Scenarios enable us to think creatively and rigorously about the different ways these forces may interact, while forcing us to challenge our own assumptions about what we believe or hope the future will be. Scenarios embrace and weave together multiple perspectives and provide an ongoing framework for spotting and making sense of important changes as they emerge. Perhaps most importantly, scenarios give us a new, shared language that deepens our conversations about the future and how we can help to shape it.

The Rockefeller Foundation has already used this project as an opportunity to clarify and advance the relationship between technology and development. Through interviews and the scenario workshops, they have engaged a diverse set of people - from different geographies, disciplines, and sectors - to identify the key forces driving change, to explore the most critical uncertainties, and to develop challenging yet plausible scenarios and implications.


Population growth

As we all know, this is a recurring theme and something Rockefeller and his cadre of ghouls likes to whine and fearmonger about. Here it is again:



Quote
For example, it is a near geopolitical certainty that - with the rise of China, India, and other nations - a multi-polar global system is emerging. One demographic certainty is that global population growth will continue and will put pressure on energy, food, and water resources - especially in the developing world. Another related certainty: that the world will strive to source more of its energy from renewable resources and may succeed, but there will likely still be a significant level of global interdependence on energy.

Now we get onto the 'fun stuff' - the 'matrix' as they call it - four possible scenarios that are in the cards - 'Lock Step', 'Clever Together', 'Hack Attack', and 'Smart Scramble'.



Copied-pasted verbatim from PDF:

Quote
LOCK STEP - A world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback.

HACK ATTACK - An economically unstable and shock-prone world in which governments weaken, criminals thrive, and dangerous innovations emerge.

CLEVER TOGETHER - A world in which highly coordinated and successful strategies emerge for addressing both urgent and entrenched world issues (My note: This is the 'greenie' sustainable crap scenario - is a bit low on surprises and overall cataclysmic fear events, except for the ominous parting statement that goes something like this - 'the population is still growing exponentially - this is 'unsustainable' - something needs to be done)

SMART SCRAMBLE - An economically depressed world in which individuals and communities develop localized, makeshift solutions to a growing set of problems.

Here is how they preface all of this stuff:

Quote
Please consider names, dates, and other such specifics in each scenario as proxies for types of events, not as necessary conditions for any particular scenario to unfold (My note: Proxies for 'types of events'?? HMMMM - false flag terror and effects-based operations (EBO) comes to mind)

We now invite you to immerse yourself in each future world and consider four different visions for the evolution of technology and international development to 2030. (My note: Yeah, enjoy yourself alright. Funny, BTW, this date '2030' - the predictive programming exercise masquerading as a videogame 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' also seems to 'predict' these marauding gangs, clashes with police and stuff by the year 2027 - hmmm - willing to bet they are tied into Global Business Network also and need to make the 'future scenario' a self-fulfilling prophecy? But more on that later)




LOCK STEP
A world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback




The killer 2012 pandemic - killing millions
My note: BTW, so nice also to see guys like Proctor & Gamble and the like sitting in on the board of this organization - the Global Business Network - hmmmmmm - they don't hide this stuff very well now do they? Man, I'm telling you, the social sciences - psychology, behaviorism and the like - have really done one big mindjob on us all - we got their freaking number yet we're supposed to refrain from stating the obvious.

Quote
In 2012, the pandemic that the world had been anticipating for years finally hit. Unlike 2009's H1N1, this new influenza strain - originating from wild geese - was extremely virulent and deadly. Even the most pandemic-prepared nations were quickly overwhelmed when the virus streaked around the world, infecting nearly 20 percent of the global population and killing 8 million in just seven months, the majority of them healthy young adults. The pandemic also had a deadly effect on economies: international mobility of both people and goods screeched to a halt, debilitating industries like tourism and breaking global supply chains. Even locally, normally bustling shops and office buildings sat empty for months, devoid of both employees and customers.

The pandemic blanketed the planet - though disproportionate numbers died in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America, where the virus spread like wildfire in the absence of official containment protocols. But even in developed countries, containment was a challenge. The United States's initial policy of 'strongly discouraging' citizens from flying proved deadly in its leniency, accelerating the spread of the virus not just within the U.S. but across borders. However, a few countries did fare better - China in particular. The Chinese government's quick imposition and enforcement of mandatory quarantine for all citizens, as well as its instant and near-hermetic sealing off of all borders, saved millions of lives, stopping the spread of the virus far earlier than in other countries and enabling a swifter post- pandemic recovery. (My note: See how this 'future scenario' tacitly implies - without saying it - that China was able to stave off disaster because of their population policies and so on and their strict top-down authoritarian style of control, so the West had better adopt this too?)


Ushering in all sorts of control and surveillance measures during the mass pandemic

Quote
China's government was not the only one that took extreme measures to protect its citizens from risk and exposure. During the pandemic, national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets. Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck and even intensified. In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems - from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty - leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.

At first, the notion of a more controlled world gained wide acceptance and approval. Citizens willingly gave up some of their sovereignty - and their privacy - to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability. Citizens were more tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight, and national leaders had more latitude to impose order in the ways they saw fit. In developed countries, this heightened oversight took many forms: biometric IDs for all citizens, for example, and tighter regulation of key industries whose stability was deemed vital to national interests. In many developed countries, enforced cooperation with a suite of new regulations and agreements slowly but steadily restored both order and, importantly, economic growth (My note: How about that eh? They're going to use the pretext of a mass-scale pandemic that will kill millions of people to usher in all these forms of control and even more overt surveillance. Amazing - and this is a report straight by the Rockefeller Foundation and an institution almost every bigwig company is a part of).


Control of science and business by big government

Quote
Meanwhile, in the developed world, the presence of so many top-down rules and norms greatly inhibited entrepreneurial activity. Scientists and innovators were often told by governments what research lines to pursue and were guided mostly toward projects that would make money (e.g., market-driven product development) or were 'sure bets' (e.g., fundamental research), leaving more risky or innovative research areas largely untapped. (My note: Actually, this has already been the case for a long time - science exists to fuel war, and the military controls nearly all laboratories and universities in the US. What else is new?

The backlash - the riots - by 2020 - right on cue with the Strategic Trends/Deus Ex agenda

Quote
By 2025, people seemed to be growing weary of so much top-down control and letting leaders and authorities make choices for them.

Wherever national interests clashed with individual interests, there was conflict. Sporadic pushback became increasingly organized and coordinated, as disaffected youth and people who had seen their status and opportunities slip away - largely in developing countries - incited civil unrest (my note: I especially like this part - 'especially in developing countries. It implies people will be hit hardest economically and status-wise in the 'developed world'). In 2026, protestors in Nigeria brought down the government, fed up with the entrenched cronyism and corruption. Even those who liked the greater stability and predictability of this world began to grow uncomfortable and constrained by so many tight rules and by the strictness of national boundaries. The feeling lingered that sooner or later, something would inevitably upset the neat order that the world's governments had worked so hard to establish.




Technology trends and applications we might see:

Quote
* Scanners using advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology become the norm at airports and other public areas to detect abnormal behavior that may indicate “antisocial intent.”

* Tele-presence technologies respond to the demand for less expensive, lower-bandwidth, sophisticated communications systems for populations whose travel is restricted. (My note: See? Travel will be for the 'elite' only)

* Driven by protectionism and national security concerns, nations create their own independent, regionally defined IT networks, mimicking China’s firewalls. Governments have varying degrees of success in policing internet traffic, but these efforts nevertheless fracture the “World Wide” Web.



CLEVER TOGETHER
A world in which highly coordinated and successful strategies emerge for addressing both urgent and entrenched worldwide issues



We'll skip 'Clever Together' for the most part - it's basic 'green eco-fascism' propaganda, sustainability crap, and framing this all as if it will benefit the people - with some 'necessary' austerity added in the mix that is glossed over. There is one 'natural disaster' that serves as the instigating event for more climate change legislation.

Quote
In 2014, the Hudson River overflowed into New York City during a storm surge, turning the World Trade Center site into a three-foot-deep lake. The image of motorboats navigating through lower Manhattan jarred the world’s most powerful nations into realizing that climate change was not just a developing-world problem. That same year, new measurements showing that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were climbing precipitously created new urgency and pressure for governments (really, for everyone) to do something fast.

Food shortages by 2027 - rethink needed for 'smart growth' - ie 'depopulation

Quote
Over the course of two decades, enormous strides were made to make the world less wasteful, more efficient, and more inclusive. But the world was far from perfect. There were still failed states and places with few resources. Moreover, such rapid progress had created new problems. Rising consumption standards unexpectedly ushered in a new set of pressures: the improved food distribution system, for example, generated a food production crisis due to greater demand. Indeed, demand for everything was growing exponentially. By 2028, despite ongoing efforts to guide 'smart growth,' it was becoming clear that the world could not support such rapid growth forever.



Technology trends and applications we might see:

Quote
* The cost of capturing data through nanosensors and smart networks falls precipitously. In many developing countries, this leads to a proliferation of new and useful services, including “sousveillance” mechanisms that improve governance and enable more efficient use of government resources. (My note: I think 'sousveillance' is their term for 'natural computing' - ie everything will be like Avatar - everything has a unique GUID (Globally Unique Identifier), all hooked up to the Internet).

* Advances in low-cost mind-controlled prosthetics aid the 80 percent of global amputees who live in developing countries.


HACK ATTACK
An economically unstable and shock-prone world in which governments weaken, criminals thrive, and dangerous innovations emerge

2012 to 2020 - the 'Doom Decade'

Quote
Devastating shocks like September 11, the Southeast Asian tsunami of 2004, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake had certainly primed the world for sudden disasters. But no one was prepared for a world in which large-scale catastrophes would occur with such breathtaking frequency. The years 2010 to 2020 were dubbed the 'doom decade' for good reason: the 2012 Olympic bombing, which killed 13,000, was followed closely by an earthquake in Indonesia killing 40,000, a tsunami that almost wiped out Nicaragua, and the onset of the West China Famine, caused by a once-in-a-millennium drought linked to climate change.



Humanitarian Relief - Brokeback economy - Chaos

Quote
Not surprisingly, this opening series of deadly asynchronous catastrophes (there were more) (My note: There were 'more'? Do tell, Rockefeller Foundation)put enormous pressure on an already overstressed global economy that had entered the decade still in recession. Massive humanitarian relief efforts cost vast sums of money, but the primary sources - from aid agencies to developed-world governments - had run out of funds to offer. Most nation-states could no longer afford their locked-in costs, let alone respond to increased citizen demands for more security, more healthcare coverage, more social programs and services, and more infrastructure repair. In 2014, when mudslides in Lima buried thousands, only minimal help trickled in, prompting the Economist headline: 'Is the Planet Finally Bankrupt?'

These dire circumstances forced tough tradeoffs. In 2015, the U.S. reallocated a large share of its defense spending to domestic concerns, pulling out of Afghanistan - where the resurgent Taliban seized power once again. In Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa, more and more nation- states lost control of their public finances, along with the capacity to help their citizens and retain stability and order. Resource scarcities and trade disputes, together with severe economic and climate stresses, pushed many alliances and partnerships to the breaking point; they also sparked proxy wars and low-level conflict in resource-rich parts of the developing world. Nations raised trade barriers in order to protect their domestic sectors against imports and - in the face of global food and resource shortages - to reduce exports of agricultural produce and other commodities. By 2016, the global coordination and interconnectedness that had marked the post-Berlin Wall world was tenuous at best.[/size]

Reverse engineering of vaccines leading to decline in public trust in vaccine use

Quote
Criminal networks also grew highly skilled at counterfeiting licit goods through reverse engineering. Many of these 'rip-offs' and copycats were of poor quality or downright dangerous. In the context of weak health systems, corruption, and inattention to standards - either within countries or from global bodies like the World Health Organization - tainted vaccines entered the public health systems of several African countries. In 2021, 600 children in Cote d'Ivoire died from a bogus Hepatitis B vaccine, which paled in comparison to the scandal sparked by mass deaths from a tainted anti-malarial drug years later. The deaths and resulting scandals sharply affected public confidence in vaccine delivery; parents not just in Africa but elsewhere began to avoid vaccinating their children, and it wasn't long before infant and child mortality rose to levels not seen since the 1970s.

Cybercrime, intellectual copyright, security screenings heightened

Quote
Technology hackers were also hard at work. Internet scams and pyramid schemes plagued inboxes. Meanwhile, more sophisticated hackers attempted to take down corporations, government systems, and banks via phishing scams and database information heists, and their many successes generated billions of dollars in losses. Desperate to protect themselves and their intellectual property, the few multinationals still thriving enacted strong, increasingly complex defensive measures. Patent applications skyrocketed and patent thickets proliferated, as companies fought to claim and control even the tiniest innovations. Security measures and screenings tightened.

High-walled fortresses for the elite; divide between have/have-nots growing wider than ever

Quote
But despite such efforts, the global have/have-not gap grew wider than ever. The very rich still had the financial means to protect themselves; gated communities sprung up from New York to Lagos, providing safe havens surrounded by slums. In 2025, it was de rigueur to build not a house but a high-walled fortress, guarded by armed personnel. The wealthy also capitalized on the loose regulatory environment to experiment with advanced medical treatments and other under-the-radar activities.


Mad Max / Road Warrior scenario

Quote
Those who couldn't buy their way out of chaos - which was most people - retreated to whatever 'safety' they could find. With opportunity frozen and global mobility at a near standstill - no place wanted more people, especially more poor people - it was often a retreat to the familiar: family ties, religious beliefs, or even national allegiance. Trust was afforded to those who guaranteed safety and survival - whether it was a warlord, an evangelical preacher, or a mother. In some places, the collapse of state capacity led to a resurgence of feudalism. In other areas, people managed to create more resilient communities operating as isolated micro versions of formerly large-scale systems. The weakening of national governments also enabled grassroots movements to form and grow, creating rays of hope amid the bleakness.

No difference anymore between 'developed' and 'developing' nations

Quote
By 2030, the distinction between 'developed' and 'developing' nations no longer seemed particularly descriptive or relevant. '

It's a nice future these freaks have in store for us, isn't it? All cute and loving stuff....



Technology trends and applications we might see

Quote
* Echoing the rise of synthetic chemicals in the nineteenth century, synthetic biology, often state-funded, is used to “grow” resources and foodstuffs that have become scarce.
* New threats like weaponized biological pathogens and destructive botnets dominate public attention, but enduring technologies, like the AK-47, also remain weapons of choice for global guerrillas.
* The internet is overrun with spam and security threats and becomes strongly associated with illicit activity — especially on “dark webs” where no government can monitor, identify, or restrict activities.
* Identity-verification technologies become a staple of daily life, with some hitches — a database of retina recordings stolen by hackers in 2017 is used to create numerous false identities still “at large” in the mid-2020s.
* With the cost of cosmetic surgery dropping, procedures like the lunchtime facelift become routine among emerging middle classes.




SMART SCRAMBLE
An economically depressed world in which individuals and communities develop localized, makeshift solutions to a growing set of problems



Will cover this perhaps later.



Excellent find. It is interesting our problem is NOT having too many babies, It's that we are not dying fast enough for them...

ClimateGate and Scenario Planning - "Hide the decline" is just the tip of the iceburg

Sub-Replacement fertility - the Second Demographic Transition

Memorable quotes for THX 1138 SRT: How shall the new environment be programmed? It all happened so slowly that most men failed to realize that anything had happened at all.


Quote
Both the current prevalence of low fertility and its persistence are unprecedented (see Frejka & Ross 2001, Population Reference Bureau 2004, Stark & Kohler 2002).

more than half of the world's population now lives in countries with sub-replacement fertility.
Further, note that
only 3% of the world's population now lives in countries that have not begun fertility decline , and that past research suggests that
once a fertility transition has begun, it does not stop until birth rates of 2 or below have been achieved.

The Sequoia Seminars

Stolaroff, with the help of Willis Harman, largely funded the foundation, the real purpose of which was to conduct the research needed to make LSD credible in the medical profession. They worked with several psychologists, including Fadiman, as well as the mysterious Al Hubbard, who was a mentor to both Harman and Stolaroff and who became a member of the board of directors.

Fadiman, who soon was teaching at San Francisco State, finished his Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford, and his research at the foundation focused on the changes in beliefs, attitude, and behavior that resulted from taking LSD.
...
The foundation was not far from Roy Kepler's bookstore and a short walk from the hole-in-the-wall store where the Midpeninsula Free University store and print shop were to locate in the mid-sixties. In another building a block away, Stewart Brand later established the Whole Earth Truck Store and the Whole Earth Catalog. About a mile away from the truck store, the original People's Computer Company settled and in turn was the catalyst for the Homebrew Computer Club in the mid-1970s. The club itself served to ignite the personal-computer industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/magazine/19wwln-domains-t.html
Stewart Brand - On the Waterfront
Published: April 15, 2009

Job description: I design stuff; I start stuff; I found stuff. On the passport I put “writer.”

Bad trip: That was my first trip. I had 400 micrograms of LSD under quite clinical circumstances at a psychological research institute in Menlo Park, Calif. It was in a white room with therapists sitting around.

Good trip: In 1963 or ’64 I showed up at the door of Ken Kesey, the novelist and LSD evangelist. I was involved in Kesey’s Acid Tests, which were happenings where LSD made its way around and everyone was there to entertain each other.

On the wagon: Since 1969 I haven’t used psychedelics. I realized I’d seen all I needed to see

Current project: With the Long Now Foundation, I am helping to build a 10,000-year clock inside a mountain in Nevada. We are trying to get people to think long-term, because civilization’s shortening attention span is mismatched with the pace of environmental problems

http://www.massivechange.com/media/INF_StewartBrand.pdf

STEWART BRAND INTERVIEW - 25/11/2003
What was Bucky Fuller’s reaction to your button campaign that asked, “Why haven’t we seen an image of the whole earth yet?”

It was all because of LSD, see. I took some lysergic acid diethylamide on an otherwise boring afternoon and came to the notion that seeing an image of the Earth from space would change a lot of things.

So, on next to no budget, I printed up buttons and posters and sold them on street corners at the University of California, Berkeley. I went to Stanford and back east to Columbia, Harvard, and MIT.

I also mailed the materials to various people: Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, senators, members of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. Out of everyone, I only heard back from Bucky Fuller, who wrote, “Dear boy, it’s a charming notion but you must realize you can never see more than half the earth from any particular point in space.” I was amused, and then met him a few months later at a seminar at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. I sat across from his lunch table and pushed the button over to him, asking him what he thought about it. He said, “Oh yes, I wrote to that guy.” I said, “I’m the guy. So what do you think?

What kind of difference do you think it will make when we actually get photographs of the earth from space?”

There was this slow, lovely silence. Then he said, “Dear boy, how can I help you?”
...

Stewart Brand is founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and cofounder of The Long Now
Foundation, The WELL, and Global Business Network.

I know the Global Business Network does some work with the Pentagon.
What about the possibility of a long peace?

I love working with the Pentagon because they’re the only entity I know that is
completely eager to think in half-century terms
. And there are several reasons for that.

They’re not a commercial entity so they’re not worried about the next quarter. They’re not a democratic entity so they’re not worried about the next election. There really is a socialist economy in the military, and the people that you encounter at the senior levels are extremely bright. They’ve come up in a very tough meritocratic pyramid, and are trained throughout their lives to think globally.

What sort of scenario planning do you do with them?

One of the scenarios that developed in the course of our work with the Pentagon was what we refer to as a rogue superpower. We were looking at the various threats from rogue states and one of us said, “Let’s see. What if you combined a lone superpower?

What about rogue states? What if they’re one and the same?” The answer is a rogue superpower! So we looked at this at great length and, lo and behold, in 2001 we received a call from a friend in the Pentagon. He said, “I think we’ve gotten to the rogue superpower scenario.”

What were your thoughts on 9/11?

We were thinking that it was sort of right on schedule. It was horrifying for a lot of people who had been working both in the Clinton Administration and in Congress on the terrorism environment because we were saying for some time, “Look, the U.S. is not invulnerable in this.” So a lot of us just groaned because we had already thought about
it.

http://www.longnow.org/clock/
The idea to build a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long-term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis and was published in the form of an email to friends. Later it was followed up with an essay published in the 1995 Wired magazine "Scenarios" issue.

Zbigniew Brzezinski pushes Rockefeller agenda of

PERSISTING SOCIAL CRISIS

to justify more weapons against the American people on LIVE TV!




Zbigniew Brzezinski: Obama The New Mr. 'Malaise'

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2010/07/16/m-word-zbigniew-brzezinski-says-obama-presiding-over-age-malaise
By Mark Finkelstein
Fri, 07/16/2010 - 08:35 ET [/center]


Can you hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth emanating from 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue? It's Pres. Obama & Co. reacting to Zbigniew Brzezinki pinning on Barack Obama the word that doomed Jimmy Carter: "malaise."

On Morning Joe, Carter's former national security adviser said there "is a sense of pervasive malaise" in America. What's worse, suggested Zbig, Pres. Obama hasn't been able to figure out how to deal with the malaise. Ruh-roh!



ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I think we're now going through a phase in which there is a sense of pervasive malaise, which affects different groups in society in different ways.

So people are dissatisfied; they're slightly worried; they don't see a good certain future for themselves or for the country, but in their own narrow sphere.


There's no grand mobilizing idea. And I have a sense that Obama, who started so well, and who really captivated people—he captivated me!—has not been able yet to generate some sort of organizing idea for an age which combines a malaise that's pervasive and percolating, and complexity.. . .


PAT BUCHANAN: We need a new paradigm!

BREZINSKI: And the President hasn't articulated it.

BUCHANAN: No he hasn't.

BREZINSKI: There goes any further invitation to the White House!



Brzezinski clearly understood the personal implications of his downer of a diagnosis: "there goes any further invitation to the White House!" The panel all enjoyed a good chuckle, but could anything be much worse for PBO than to be seen as the reincarnation of Jimmy Carter?

Historical Note: Here's more on the Malaise Speech itself. Interestingly, although Carter adviser Pat Caddell used "malaise" in his notes for the speech, Carter himself never actually employed the word, speaking instead of a "crisis of the spirit in our country."

No Goneril, She: Good daughter that she is, Mika tried to put the best face on father's words. As Zbig lamented the end of his White House invitations, Mika twice pointed out that he had said "yet." In other words, it's not that pops had painted the president an irredeemable failure. It's just that PBO hasn't come up with a solution to the malaise "yet."


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